Numerous items such as smart phones, smart watches, tablets, automobiles, aerial drones, appliances, aircraft, exercise aids, and game controllers may utilize motion sensors during their operation. In many applications, various types of sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure sensors, and magnetometers may be analyzed independently or together in order to determine varied information for particular applications. For example, gyroscopes and accelerometers may be used in gaming applications (e.g., smart phones or game controllers) to capture complex movements by a user, drones and other aircraft may determine orientation based on gyroscope measurements (e.g., roll, pitch, and yaw), and vehicles may utilize measurements for determining direction (e.g., for dead reckoning) and safety (e.g., to recognizing skid or roll-over conditions).
Many sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure sensors, magnetometers, and microphones are implemented as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors. Micromechanical components of the sensor are fashioned using silicon fabrication techniques, and those micromechanical components respond (e.g., move) in response to certain external stimuli that are measured by the sensor, based on the design of the particular micromechanical components. The response of the micromechanical components to the external stimuli may be measured, e.g., by measuring the relative distance between the moving micromechanical components and fixed components of the sensor.
A MEMS sensor may be manufactured from a number of layers using semiconductor manufacturing techniques. The relative distance between components of the MEMS sensor may vary for different sensors based on manufacturing tolerances and similar factors. Further, a MEMS sensor may be packaged with other components in a manner that introduces stresses and other forces on the MEMS sensor and components and layers thereof. Environmental conditions and end-use environments may affect components of the MEMS sensor. These and other factors may cause components within the MEMS sensor to shift in a manner that changes the expected relative locations between sensor components, resulting in measurement errors.